ak. But the Professor did not seem
to be greatly astonished, and the sole sound which broke the stillness
was his sardonic chuckle. Perhaps the little man had progressed beyond
the point of being surprised at anything, or, like, Moliere's hero, was
only surprised at finding virtue in unexpected places.

As for the Peruvian and the skipper, they were both on their feet,
eyeing one another like two fighting dogs. Hervey was the first to find
his very useful tongue.

"I guess you've got the bulge on me," said he, trying to outstare
the Peruvian, for which nationality, from long voyaging on the South
American coast, he entertained the most profound contempt.

But in De Gayangos he found a foeman worthy of his steel.

"I think not," said Don Pedro quietly, and facing the pseudo-American
bravely. "I never forget faces, and yours is a noticeable one. When you
first spoke I fancied that I remembered your voice. All that business
with the chair was to get close to you, so that I could see the scar
on your right temple. It is still there, I notice. Also, I dropped my
cigarette case and forced you to pick it up, so that, when you stretched
your arm, I might see what mark was on your left wrist. It is a serpent
encircling the sun, which Lola Farjados induced you to have tattooed
when you were in Lima thirty years ago. Your eyes are blue and full of
light, and as you were twenty when I knew you, the lapse of years has
made you fifty--your present age."

"Shucks!" said Hervey coolly, and sat down to smoke.

Don Pedro turned to Archie and Braddock.

"Mr. Hope! Professor!" he remarked, "if you remember the description I
gave of Gustav Vasa, I appeal to you to see if it does not exactly fit
this man?"

"It does," said Archie unhesitatingly, "although I cannot see the
tattooed left wrist to which you refer."

Hervey, still smoking, made no offer to show the symbol, but Braddock
unexpectedly came to the assistance of Don Pedro.

"The man is Vasa right enough," he remarked abruptly. "Whether he is
Swedish or American I cannot say. But he is the same man I met when I
was in Lima thirty years ago, after the war."

Hervey slowly turned his blue eyes on the scientist with a twinkle in
their depths.

"So you recognized me?" he observed, with his Yankee drawl.

"I recognized you at the moment I hired you to take The Diver to Malta
to bring back that mummy," retorted Braddock, "but it didn't suit my
book to let on. Didn't you reco